Washi Paper Weaving - Donna Sakamoto Crispin

Donna Sakamoto Crispin of Eugene, Oregon is a basket weaver and fiber arts instructor. While her degrees are in sociology and education, she has taken many basketry, weaving, ceramics, and jewelry classes over the years, and teaches basketry workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest. Often Donna works with western red cedar, collecting it in area forests and creating her own strips using traditional Native American methods to weave objects that reflect the beauty of nature.

As a third generation
Japanese-American, she also has an interest in incorporating Japanese
culture into her work. While bamboo is most typically used for basketry
in Japan, without access to a ready supply, Donna began experimenting
with washi paper, which is made from the inner bark of a mulberry tree.

Interestingly, Donna told me she has also made a
piece with Korean mulberry paper, known as hanji. If you're a longtime
reader of this blog, you might recall posts about hanji and Aimee Lee.
In fact, she recently attended one of Aimee's workshops - the paper
world is small indeed! You can read about the workshop and see photos on
Donna's blog.

Just this past year Donna began researching traditional and
modern ways to make shifu, Japanese paper yarn used for weaving projects, and koyori, which is handspun paper cord. She enjoys experimenting with many kinds of paper and has even spun old dress pattern paper!

Enjoy this short video Donna made as an introduction to shifu and koyori.